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Adapted from “Just What the Bible is all
about” © 1979
What Happens to Body and Soul at Death?
Faith in a future life is what leads many
to perform noble deeds and to attempt to live good lives. Mankind has a
built-in sense of moral obligation that causes him to look to the
future. Many times the righteous suffer in this life while the wicked
seem to prosper. Our sense of reason and justice tells us surely there
will be future justice yet due. Many also feel they are capable of
attainments far beyond what their time and opportunities ever enable
them to realize in the limits of this life. Longfellow has said:
“Life is real, life is earnest
And the grave is not it’s goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returneth
Was
not spoken of the soul.”
This belief of life after death is found
in all races and is not just the result of traditional teaching. Surely
the reason that God has implanted this universal intuition of
immortality in man is because He has made provision for it. Besides our
intuition, the Bible also teaches us of life after death. Man is a
two-fold being consisting of mortal flesh (his outward body) and
immortal spirit the inward man) his soul. “For which cause we faint
not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed
day by day,” (II Cor. 4:16). Spiritual death is a separation, a
separation from God. Therefore, a person can be physically alive and
at the same time be spiritually dead, (Eph. 2:1-Col. 2:13) dead in
trespasses and sin; hence separated from God. Physical death is a
separation also; a separation of the soul from the body. “And it came
to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called
his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin, (Gen. 35:18). “For
as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead
also,” (James 2:26). So when the spirit leaves the body, the body dies.
Physical life is … Soul united with body.
Physical death is … Soul separated from
body.
Spiritual life is … Soul united with God.
Spiritual death is … Soul separated from God.
The second death … final separation from
God.
The failure to distinguish between
physical life and spiritual life is why some erroneously hold to what is
termed “conditional immorality”. This incorrect doctrine teaches that
only the saved have immortality. This deception leaves the unsaved
with no everlasting punishment, just the forfeiture of everlasting
life. They base this false theory on scriptures like John 3:36. “He
that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not shall not
see life.” The “life” referred to by these scriptures means spiritual
life or union with God, which of course only believers have.
Scriptures like II Thessalonians 1:7-9 clearly show that the wicked,
“...shall be punished with everlasting destruction.” There is a
difference between eternal life and immortality. Immortality is
ceaseless existence, something every soul has, saved or unsaved.
Eternal life is the condition of
the soul of the saved in that it is united with the eternal Christ,
therefore has eternal life. We would point out that if this person
sins, his soul is separated from Christ, (he spiritually dies) hence, at
that point he no longer has eternal life, but is dead again in trespass
and sin. Going on now with life after death, there are numerous
scriptures proving the soul lives on (exists) after the body dies. In
teaching the resurrection of the dead, Jesus taught in Matthew 22:32,
that the souls of the ancient prophets were still living, even though
their bodies were long since decayed. Also in Luke 23:43, Jesus
promised the dying thief on the cross that, “...today shalt thou be
with me in paradise.” The body of the thief, like that of Jesus, died
on the cross and was buried. It was their spirits which went to
paradise. They were to go to paradise, not thousands of years later as
“soul sleepers” and the “annihilationist” affirms, but the very day on
which they died... “today”. Paul was “willing to be absent from the
body and to be present with the Lord,” (II Cor. 5:6-8). Again Paul
says, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain...for I am in a
strait betwixed two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ,
which is far better; nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful
for you,” (Philippians 1:21,23). These texts show that the soul lives
on in a conscious existence after the body dies and refutes the false
theories of “soul sleeping” and “annihilation”. Now just what happens
to the body and soul at the time of physical death?
FIRST: WHAT
HAPPENS TO THE BODY AT DEATH?
Our bodies
are mortal as we all know,
therefore at death the body decomposes. That
which
was created from the dust of the earth, the body, the flesh, what Paul
termed the “outward man” will go back to dust again. However the Bible
teaches that this body that dies will be resurrected. Only the body
sleeps in the dust of the ground (Eccl. 11.7 / Matt. 27:52-53) and that
which sleeps “...in the dust of the earth shall awake.” Daniel 12:2
says, “And many [the many] of them that sleep in the dust of the
earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and
everlasting contempt”. Then Philippians 3:20-21 says, “we look for the
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it
may be fashioned like unto his glorious body…” It is not our soul, but
our body that will come forth and be changed in the final resurrection
of the dead. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in
corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is
raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is
sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural
body, and there is a spiritual body,” (I Cor. 15:42-44). Our bodies
(only) are mortal and “...this mortal must put on immortality.” “For
this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on
immortality, (I Cor. 15:53). Christ is the begotten of the dead...”
(Rev. 1:5). The first born from the dead…” (Col. 1:18); “...the
first-fruits of them that slept,” (I Cor. 15:20) “...the first that
should rise from the dead…” (Acts 26:23.) There is more on the
resurrection in the booklet entitled “Christ’s Second Coming and Last
Things”.
SECOND: WHAT HAPPENS TO THE
SOUL AT TIME OF DEATH
We have already shown the soul lives on
after the death of the body and that the body will be resurrected.
These facts would certainly imply that there is an intermediate state or
place for the soul between death and the resurrection.
THE INTERMEDIATE STATE
This state surely would not be a
so-called purgatory, (a place some claim to suffer for sin). The false
teaching of a purgatory denies that the atonement of Christ is
sufficient to save from all sin, and also denies that salvation is only
by the grace of God through Christ. The intermediate state also would
not be a state or place of probation. “For we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done
in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or
bad.” The things done in our body would be while we were yet alive.
Another incorrect teaching is that man receives his final reward at the
time of death, but this too, is not the teaching of the scriptures. If
a man received his final reward at death there would be no need for a
resurrection and a day of judgment. II Timothy 4:1 teaches us Christ
“… shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing… In II
Thessalonians 1:7-10, we read that, “…when the Lord Jesus shall be
revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, In flaming fire taking
vengeance on those that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction
from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power; When He
shall come to be glorified in His saints and to be admired in all them
that believe…” Therefore, the soul goes to an intermediate place at the
time of death to wait the final judgment when he receives his final
reward, be it good or bad.
HADES…THE INTERMEDIATE PLACE
The intermediate place or state is called
Hades, the unseen world, the place of departed spirits. Granted, the
term “Hades” (translated as “hell” several times in the New Testament)
can have other meanings as well. When the Hebrews intermingled with the
Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans, they naturally came into their own use
of terms and adopted them. Thus the term “paradise,” “Abraham’s bosom,”
“Tartarus,” etc., came to be commonly used among the Jews, when
referring to the state of the blessed or the wicked after death. These
terms were of course introduced into the teachings of the scriptures.
The Apostle Paul speaks of “paradise” as a heavenly realm (II Cor.
12:2-4) as does Jesus when talking to the thief on the cross. Paradise,
therefore, refers to the place in the unseen world (Hades) the righteous
soul goes at death. Tartarus, the lowest Hades, is the dwelling place
for departed wicked souls. II Peter 2:4 says, “For if God spared not
the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them
into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.” “Hell,” in this
scripture is from the Greek word “Tartarus”. The intermediate
place for the righteous and the wicked is also seen in the account of
Lazarus and the rich man, (Luke 16:19-31). Lazarus died and was
carried into Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was
buried. “…and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments…”
This lesson teaches there was a great gulf fixed between the two places.
We know this took place before the resurrection because the five
brothers of the rich man were still living on earth, and the rich man desired they would repent so they
would not end up in the same place.
Bill Roberts
Gospel Truth and Publications, P.O. Box
142, Jackson Center, OH 45334
See diagram chart below.
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